Good Grief!!!

Homeland Security paid for polygraph exams for more than 2,300 potential hires at Customs and Border Protection even though they’d already admitted to drug use or criminal behavior that would have disqualified them anyway, the department’s inspector general said in a new report this week.

The polygraphs cost $2,200 a pop, meaning the department blew more than $5 million on tests that were irrelevant even before they began, investigators said.

CBP, which oversees Border Patrol agents and the officers who man the official ports of entry, has been struggling to hire agents, with its stringent requirements weeding most applicants out. President Trump’s call for an additional 5,000 agents to be added to the force has only complicated matters.

“Given its plans to hire 5,000 additional Border Patrol Agents, it is important that CBP focus its resources on the most qualified and suitable applicants,” said Inspector General John Roth.

The waste of money and time on applicants who have no chance of serving is likely to inflame concerns on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are questioning whether the Border Patrol needs — or can properly hire — that many new agents.

In a report last month the inspector general said CBP has yet to justify that surge in staffing. Auditors said given the hiring difficulties, it would take an estimated 750,000 applications to fill the 5,000 positions.

Applicants for law enforcement positions at CBP are required submit a number of forms and do a polygraph, which involves a pre-exam interview, then the actual exam, and then a post-exam interview to go over the results.But nearly one in five applicants willingly admits in the first interview to criminal behavior or drug use that makes them ineligible. The problem was that CBP didn’t always terminate their applications, and some 2,300 of them went on to have polygraphs anyway — though there was no way they could be hired.

The list of disqualifying admissions was stunning. Some applicants admitted to drug smuggling or human trafficking.CBP, in its official reply to the report, agreed with the findings and said it’s already taken steps. As of June 12, a new process was in place to have polygraph examiners check any potentially disqualifying pre-exam interview information with adjudicators to make sure the candidate is still viable before going ahead with the polygraph.

“Since the new policy was issued, CBP is not aware of any policy violations that have occurred,” Sean. M. Mildrew, the senior component accountability official at CBP, said in reply.

The polygraph has become a controversial part of the CBP hiring process.

In order to speed up the process of getting new Border Patrol agents into the field, some lawmakers have proposed eliminating the need for a polygraph exam for active-duty law enforcement or military troops who already have security clearances.

A bill with some of those changes cleared the House earlier this year, though opponents — including immigrant-rights groups — say they fear a streamlined process will fail to weed out potential bad agents.

"...of no more satisfying conceit than the discovery of such hidden depths of character in one's own child..." - From Survive the Savage SeaIntegrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.

During a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. on Saturday, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke said the event is in line with President Trump’s “promises.”“This represents a turning point for the people of this country. We are determined to take our country back,” Duke said. “We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believed in. That’s why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he’s going to take our country back.” (take it back from who? Black citizens? Hispanic citizens? Jewish citizens? Any non-Christian citizens of any stripe?)

...

"...of no more satisfying conceit than the discovery of such hidden depths of character in one's own child..." - From Survive the Savage SeaIntegrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.

Re: Good Grief!!!

This is what you get with Steve Bannon and other Brietbart followers in the White House. Trump's entire campaign was littered with the code words that incited those who feared Blacks , Muslims, and immigrants. His campaign was based on racism, and the alt-Right has been given tacit permission to express their long simmering hatred of the "others" in our society. So, this is the product of a Black president who dared spout liberalism, Humanism, and intellectualism. The cretins have been loosed from their constraints to assault science, reason, and compassion. Trump is merely a bloated figurehead for Bannon's deconstruction of government and a sycophant of Putin who aided the Breitbart faction to create their coup of the American Democracy. The seeds of this frightening takeover were planted as soon as Obama became a potential candidate, and now we will all pay a price for our lack of attention to the Facist influences that roam the streets in West Virginia and sit at the table in the Oval Office.

Re: Good Grief!!!

David Duke in a tweet reminded Trump that white people......think closet racists......elected him. So, my guess is that the suppression of minority voting rights, immigration sweeps and deportation, and violence against "others" will accelerate. After all, the cretins need to take their country back.

Re: Good Grief!!!

Trump may be insane, but he is shrewdly so. He knows that the alt-right got him elected, and he won't offend them. Remember what I said in a post months ago: Trump's election is a confluence of the evil people and the stupid people. He needs the stupids to remain in office.

Re: Good Grief!!!

Here's another beaut....! HR McMaster, Trump's national security advisor, was asked by Chuck Todd what role Sebastian Gorka played in the administration. (Gorka is also a national security advisor who has a suspicious background...) McMaster avoided the question entirely, saying, in effect, that he didn't know. So, when seated around that big table in the White House, McMaster does not know who else is in the room? Does not know? Are we to believe that people like McMaster will manage Trump when he simply lied to Chuck Todd? Don't know? They are all liars. Our government has been co-opted by a bunch of liars who don't answer questions, who ignore questions, and who simply lie when questions are uncomfortable. Even I, an ordinary reader of the news, know that Gorka is in league with Breitbart, has ties to the hungarian Nazi movement, has been rejected by the Hungarian Parliament, and is the engineer of Trump's anti-Muslim philosophy. And McMaster....doesn't know? Liars surround themselves with liars. God protect us from this pack of wolves.

Last edited by limner43; August 13th, 2017 at 05:29 PM.
Reason: punctuation

Re: Good Grief!!!

What I find troubling is that a group of a couple of hundred men carrying torches were allowed to march around spouting Nazi terms. Americans died to put a stop to that in WW2.

I remember 25 years ago the Nazi's in full uniform showed in in Boston for some demonstration. Every union worker in construction, railroad airlines, even the hotel maids also showed up to counter them. The demonstration lasted 5 minutes as the police rushed the Nazi's away for their safety. Now they are allowed to march around? That is BS!

Re: Good Grief!!!

I am not either a Nazi or white supremacist, yet I firmly disagree with the removal of statues that commemorate the civil war, and i am very disturbed that any group would initiate a civil conflict over SOMETHING THAT SHOULD REMIND US OF THOSE TRYING TIMES.
I am also very concerned about the left who are resorting to violence to suppress free speech.

Eight years of the Obama presidency – featured so much leftist violence, protesting and destruction. From Occupy Wall Street burning American flags and defecating on police cars for reasons even they were not able to explain, to the riots, killing and looting of Ferguson and Baltimore, American liberals have devolved into a peculiar collection of bullies physically attacking people and destroying random property, to include their own neighborhoods...................

At the ground level, since liberals have lost the ability to win any and every political discussion by hurling a slur, they are simply resorting to the next level in political interaction: violence and physical intimidation. Since most liberal positions are by their very nature emotional instead of rational, it stands to reason that our liberal friends would not resort to a rational discussion of their positions once their practice of hurling slurs stopped working as the automatic game winner.

Re: Good Grief!!!

Huge riot with violence in Charlotte a year ago

John Barnett, who runs a civil rights group called True Healing Under God, or THUG, warned that the video might be the only way for the police to regain the community’s trust: “Just telling us this is still under investigation is not good enough for the windows of the Wal-Mart.”

Heal and others said there is deep discord between the Berkeley Police Department and the city government, led by Jesse Arreguin, the 32-year-old newly elected mayor facing his first major test in running a large city. Arreguin has been accused of supporting left-wing violence because he is a member of the Facebook group of By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN, a far left group that has incited violent protests across the country.

Re: Good Grief!!!

Free speech should not be suppressed because others don't want to hear it...it is an absolute right. However, those who are exercising it also have to accept that others have the same right to free speech as well, and if it is in opposition so be it. Violence is not a right and should not be used against others who don't like what is being said in the exercise of free speech, regardless of who it is.

Laws should be enforced when violence occurs, actions have consequences. If someone punches another in the face for speaking hateful talk, they should be willing to suffer the consequences of their actions when it results in a charge of assault and battery. When one uses their right to free speech to incite violence there are also consequences and they should be expect to be arrested and charged accordingly.

Frankly, as much as I detest hateful organizations such as the KKK and David Duke, et.al., I prefer that they be out in the open where they can be monitored rather than hidden away, plotting cross-burnings and bottle and pipe bomb making, etc.; and, we can see and know who the reprobates are.

"...of no more satisfying conceit than the discovery of such hidden depths of character in one's own child..." - From Survive the Savage SeaIntegrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.

Re: Good Grief!!!

i am very disturbed that any group would initiate a civil conflict over SOMETHING THAT SHOULD REMIND US OF THOSE TRYING TIMES.

Those statues have stood for over 50 plus years. Some over a 100. No one had said they are offensive.
What have they statues done in the last 2 years that all of a sudden offend someone??
People have walked by them everyday of their lives and probably never gave them a second thought until someone TOLD them they must find them hateful.

I found a preacher who spoke of the light but there was brimstone in his throatHe'd show me the way according to him in return for my personal checkI flipped my channel back to CNN and I lit another cigarette